I decided to do a test of a few different document sharing sites and compare them to see which really is the best. With SEO it’s all about optimizing our time and getting the most bang for out of our effort. So let’s look at the results!

The four sites I used for this test are:
Issuu, Scribd, Docstoc and Doxtop.

For this test I used the exact same article on all four sites and published all articles at the same time with the help of my SEO team.
We used an article with obscure and low competition keywords so that we could see the results more clearly.

INDEXING
The first test preformed was indexing times of each of these sites. For this test we simply published our content on the site and let it sit. We didn’t do any Social Bookmarking, Pinging or any other tactics that might alter results. Results may vary.

1. Doxtop – (Indexed in 16 hours of publishing)
2. Scribd – (Indexed in 23 hours of publishing)
3. Docstoc – (Indexed in 3 days of publishing)
4. Issuu – (Indexed in 6 days of publishing)

Doxtop and Scribd are very quick to get indexed but the other two sites take quite some time. In a case like this I would add these two sites into a software like Traffic-Bug to increase the indexing time.

RANKING FOR KEYWORD (TITLE)
The second test was preformed after all sites had been indexed. We also verified that all articles were on a level playing field and no one article had comments, traffic or backlinks. Since all four articles had the exact same title it would be easy to do an exact phrase match search and then log which sites ranked best.

1. Scribd
2. Docstoc
3. Doxtop
4. Issuu (ranked two pages lower than Scribd)

Scribd was the clear winner but Docstoc and Doxtop weren’t far behind. Issuu in this test scored miserably.

RANKING FOR TEXT IN BODY(GOOGLE)
Next I wanted to see which sites preformed best for the actual body text. Title’s are nice but often times we are unable to squeeze our keywords into the title of an article. So it’s very important to test how the body text is ranked. For this we used an exact phrase match for a phrase in the body of each article and compared which articles ranked best. I wanted to take this test one step further and so I divided Google and Yahoo into two separate tests.

1. Scribd
2. Docstoc
3. Doxtop
4. Issuu

RANKING FOR TEXT IN BODY (YAHOO)

1. Docstoc
2. Scribd
3. Doxtop
4. Issuu

Docstoc had a clear advantage over Scribd in this test on Yahoo. In Google both services were fairly close. In both tests Scribd and Docstoc were clear winners over the other two services.

PAGE RANK OF SITE
For the most of us we aren’t actually using these sites to necessarily target rankings. It is nice to dominate the entire first page on Google, but the reality is we may have dozens of these articles all pointing back to our main page. So it’s important to measure how much weight each site carries. So I did a quick measure to see how the sites rank in Page Rank. *Note. Just because a site’s homepage is a certain PR does not mean your article is that PR. This test is more of a measure of the strength of the overall site in general and the link juice it can pass.*

1. Scribd – PR8
1. Issuu – PR8
2. Docstoc – PR6
3. Doxtop – PR4

EASE OF USE
Sometimes it’s all about speed and ease of use. If a backlink is only 10% more effective but it takes 3x longer to achieve it often times is not worth the extra effort. So for this test I wanted to quickly compare which sites were easiest to use. The trick to this test was to get an objective opinion. Since I used three of these sites regularly and have my favorite and hadn’t ever used Docstoc before I didn’t want to be the judge on this test. So I brought in my wife who hadn’t ever used any of these sites. I had her go through the whole process of creating an account and publishing her first article on all three sites. Then I had her give her opinion on which site were easiest to use and her preference.

1. Scribd
2. Docstoc
3. Doxtop
4. Issuu

SPECIAL FEATURES, LIMITATIONS, FUNCTIONALITY

1. Issuu
++Link for every document in doc description (DO FOLLOW)
++Link on profile page (DO FOLLOW)
+Facebook connect appears to have been added. This was added recently after my test and I have not verified.

2. Doxtop
+Link on profile page (NO FOLLOW)
+Facebook connect or login with Open ID (registration is much easier this way)

3. Scribd
+Link on profile page (NO FOLLOW)
+Facebook connect

4. Docstoc
+Link on profile page (NO FOLLOW)
+Facebook connect

THE RESULTS
*Drum roll please*

1. Scribd.com -25 points
2. Docstoc.com -20 points
3. Doxtop.com -17 points
4. Issuu.com -15points

And there you have it! Now you know which sites are ranked best and are worth your time. Though Issuu ranked in quite lower and I don’t use it as often I still find it a great resource! It is the only site on this list that offers a complete (DO FOLLOW) backlink that will show up on Google! A great tactic can be to publish several Issuu documents with backlinks to your main site. Then to give Issuu the boost it badly needs, simply input that URL into Traffic-Bug. This way you will look at much faster index times and are easily able to see backlinks being built to your main site.

If you have any suggestions on other article sites you would like to see tested just let us know in the comments section below.
or
If you have a different type of test you would like to see let us know! We are open to share our results on any subject!

**If you liked this article then let us know by clicking the facebook like button or sharing on twitter!

Though I am about 95% sure Caffein didn’t get renamed by google to Kaffein I can’t verify this quite yet. However, it is no joke that this update is quite possibly live everywhere which will change some SEO factors. I will keep you posted on my findings! Dang Google for making this time of year so difficult! ;)

Hope you enjoy the vid!

Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

(This search engine thingy for my iphone is pretty dang cool. You can use it more like a reference or quick information guide for searches. If there is a specific piece of information you need this tool will be faster than loading safari an doing a search on Google. Also it’s affordable now since it dropped from like $49 to $2. If you already purchased this along time ago for the full price ask for a refund to the cheaper price as they are honoring that!)

Apple builds their own search engine in the next 5 years?: http://www.businessinsider.com/70-chance-apple-builds-its-own-search-engine-in-the-next-five-years-2010-3

See my new training video of the new YouTube layout:

FourSquare set to hit 1 million users! Check it out: http://foursquare.com/

***************************
LIST OF APRIL FOOLS JOKES

Google Docs let’s you upload anything, really, anything you want, including your sofa
Google AJAX let’s you define evil API requests from legit ones with the &evil=true parameter
Google Maps Australia does Australian speaking directions
Google Maps does 3D street views. Go to the maps, and go down to a street level and you will be able to see the man with 3D glasses.
Google AdSense adds wingdings font to the ads
YouTube lets you watch videos in text only mode.
Google building a nuclear project according to TechCrunch
Google Books go 3D
Google gets into building jails for municipalities
Google launches Google Translate for Animals
Google voice does standard voicemail capabilities
Google’s search results summary bar shows results in something else then seconds (try it with any Google search)
Google launched Google Romance
Google Reader’s ReaderAdvantage miles program
Picasa’s life size image view
Google Chrome extension to unmute the web
Gmail vowel outage

*******************************************

On April 1st Google honored Topeka Kansas and changed their name to Topeka for a day. During Google’s “Super Fast Internet” contest Topeka Kansas tried to get the attention of Google and renamed their city for an entire month to Google Kansas. This really got the attention of Google and on April 1st 2010 Google returned the favor and officially renamed them selves to Topkea for a day!

Topeka Kansas now Google Kansas

Topeka Google

Doing something crazy like this can really get the attention of those big fish that you want to attract. If you are in a position with a really good product but are finding your self lacking any connections do something BIG to stand out among the crowd! I am not huge fish in the midst of all the big corporations out there but even I get people coming to me day in and day out wanting to sell me something, get me to sell something or help them! I try my best to sort through the rift and help all I can but it is difficult. Doing something large can really help you stand out and get a guru’s attention or potential business partner.

Below is a wallpaper I designed back in 2008. Sure I had to spend time designing it and then spend a few hundred bucks to have a nice artist put it all together…but the end result was me throwing that in every forum I could find and eventually one of the guru’s in the picture contacted me. It formed a relationship that took my career to new heights. Doing something like this can help you stand out in your niche, but not only that it let’s the guru’s know you mean business and that you have the income and persistence to be serious and are quite possibly worth listening too! ;)

Funny Wallpaper of the 30dc crew

Catch you next week with the next internet news video!

Be sure to subscribe to this blogs RSS feed and connect with me on Facebook and Twitter!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MichaelRobertsSEO

Twitter: http://twitter.com/MichaelRRoberts

So I put together this video for you so you can see how easy it is to use and how I am using it as a set and forget
back link strategy.

Check out this vid! ;)

GET ACCESS TO THIS AMAZING SOFTWARE NOW!

The software uses RSS to build a ton of very high quality
BACKLINKS, improves PAGE RANK and brings increased targeted
WEB VISITORS.

On TOP OF the usual genuine bonuses they throw in, I have got them
to also include their special powerful TWITTER module that is
usually only available to their members.

The Twitter module shows you how use Twitter to generate a huge
list in no time at all.

Tim himself has just under 25,000 Twitter followers!

25,000…

Anyway, I strongly suggest consider getting the Web Traffic Genius
software.

The include a 60 day FULL REFUND GUARANTEE so frankly why wouldn’t
you try this?

Submitting to RSS sites is much like that pinging feature I taught to you guys. (Pinging feature tip)
It’s something you need to be doing. However, RSS is more powerful than pinging and it is more time consuming.
Below is a list of RSS sites you should be submitting any new post to:

blogdigger.com
blogpulse.com
devasp.com
feedage.com (requires account)
feedagg.com (requires account)
feedboy.com
feedest.com
feedgy.com
feedooyoo.com
feeds2read.net
icerocket.com
newsisfree.com (requires account)
ngoid.sourceforge.net
overskrift.dk (requires account)
plazoo.com
rss-feeds.info (requires account)
rss-network.com
rssmotron.com
rssnetworkfeedsdirectory.com
weblogalot.com

The Web Traffic Genius software automatically does this for you, but if for some crazy reason you don’t want to try a 0 risk software
then you should be doing this list by hand!

By the end of 30 days you will be more than happy with the results from this tip! ;)

I will be doing a news video this weekend and also have some pretty cool seo tips in the pipeline so we will
catch you next time!

Michael Roberts

P.S.
I know this software will over time easily pay for it’s self….There is no doubt in my mind. Even if it just moved you from position
4 to position 3 that is a 3-4% increase in traffic every single month!
BUT
I wanted to throw in a free tip for you that you can utilize today to save money online! This tip alone in the course of a year can easily purchase this software for you! Internet Tip To Save Money
(Many of you may already know this tip but I was surprised how many weren’t using this!)

Keep posted though as I am working on some pretty cool stuff I want to share with you guys in the next few weeks!

-3D movies I talked about were Captian Eo produced by Epcot and Michael Jackson and Alice in Wonderland which just came out in 3D and is in theaters at the date of this post.

-For more information about Google’s competition they held for fast internet visit Google’s Competition.

- To see South Carolina’s YouTube vid they did to attract google you can see it here: Google & South Carolina

- **Recommended** Check out Google Apps new channel. They put up a new YouTube channel and I think it is a worthy subscribe so you can easily stay on top of new apps. Google YouTube App Channel

- I imagine this site will eventually dissppear, but for now I will provide the link anyway so you can check Google’s status in China. Google’s Services Offered In China

I will be producing some new training and tips videos in the next few days. Right now is a super busy schedule as I am working on something secret! Shhh! I will alert you guys soon as I can about this.

Michael Roberts

If you don’t think page load speed is important then watch my video and find out why it’s becoming more important than ever!
PAGE LOAD SPEED VIDEO

WP SUPER CAHCE
1) Install Plugin: WP SUPER CACHE
2) Before activating this plugin leave the plugin area and goto “settings” > “permalinks” > Select Custom Structure and enter: /%postname%/
3) Go into your WP Super Cache settings and set up your preferences and enable the plugin

WP Touch iPhone Theme
Awesome tool to install onto your blog to make it cell phone friendly. Greatly sped up the load time on my phone. Less scrolling and less junk to slow a cell phone browsing down.

Optimize your photos for load time
1) Free online tool to edit your photos is Picnik
2) Be sure to always remove all the white space around your photo. Crop that down as close as possible to the actual image.
3) Reduce the file quality. Often times you can greatly reduce a file size without seeing any loss in quality to the human eye.

CSS SPRITES
Another great way to reduce load times is by turning multiple back ground photos into a single photo. This will reduce the number of HTTP requests made and is a fundamental technique in increasing your websites load times.

1) Visit Spriteme and drag and drop the text/icon into your tool bar
2) Visit your webpage you want to create a CSS Sprite to
3) Click the Spriteme button in your toolbar
4) Click the make sprite button under the recommended sprites
5) Once the file is made click the export to CSS option
6) Now you can use your favorite HTML editor and FTP program to upload the new CSS Sprite

Spritme worked very well for me but a buddy of mine had issues using it. So here is a link to the second best free
CSS Sprite creator I found: http://csssprites.com/

FREE TOOL TO HELP YOU SEE PAGE LOAD SPEED ISSUES
1) First you will need to use which you can download here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html
2) Next install FIREBUG
3) Now install Google’s Page Speed Plugin for it here: http://code.google.com/speed/page-speed/download.html

- Simply visit any URL now and click the firebug button and you get a nice report on issues effecting your page load speed! *MAGIC*

BONUS TIPS NOT INCLUDED IN THE VIDEO!

1) XHTML instead of tables

*This tip is a bit more advanced and will require you to know how to fiddle around with your websites code.

If your currently using Tables they render much slower than DIVs by your browser. By using XHTML instead of tables you are essentially accomplishing more with less code which increases page load speed!

However, like most things tables do have their place in this world. In some situations using a table is going to make a lot more since. Creating a 6 columned table could require a lot more coding using XHTML so just be sure you use tables when necessary but try to switch to XHTML for the majority of your work.

2) Compress & Merge JavaScript Files

* Another more advanced tip

Compressing JavaScript files can greatly lower the size of your files and doesn’t have any negative effects on your side.
Try to merge JavaScript files to prevent multiple includes and if a JavaScript file will be used only in a few pages then try to include them inside those pages.

Here is a link to a JavaScript Compressor

3) HTTP Compression & Gzip

Ok this tip is probably one of the more effective tips and it doesn’t take a whole lot of knowledge.
If you simply can’t figure out how to do this see one of my lower tips on outsourcing this task to someone I have used and is cheap.

There are two common choices and you can either use HTTP Compression or Gzip.
You can either use Gzip (which is what I use), which can be enabled at the site level
or
you can use HTTP compression which is a great choice as well that can be enabled on the server side.

I would go into describing this but there is already a perfect detailed article on how HTTP Compression works.

4) GETTING A FASTER SERVER

A lot of people who get into the affiliate marketing game just dip their feet into the water. They don’t want to spend a bunch of money until they know they can make it work. This can be a very smart decision and is what I refer to as Boot Strapping. However, sometimes this can wind up shooting your self in the foot. You pick out a the cheapest shared server you can find and then the next thing you know your having reliability and site performance issues.

Making sure you have a fast server is critical. If you are getting 4-10k worth of traffic then it is definitely time to step up your server and move to a VPS (Virtual Private Server). This may sound big and scary but were only talking around $24 per month for a quality set up.

It’s at least worth looking into!
Hostgator is a great option with very good customer support, Softlayer is awesome and has slightly better prices and the last hosting company I have recently found is probably more suitable for smaller affiliates. They have crazy low prices and they are who I am using on many of my sites now.

If you want to get ahold of the nicest sales agent I have met over there contact: lijeesh@subhosting.net
(Tell him I sent you and to give you a killer price!)

5) HIRING AN EXPERT

My business model is focussing on putting out quality content into each one of my niches. I find it very difficult to hire someone to put together quality content, but for everything else someone else can do it better! Why sacrifice 8-16 hours of my time optimizing some of the more complicated tasks in improving my site speed when I can pay someone to do that and focus on the most important thing…putting quality content on the web! Now for me putting up quality content is what makes me money so everything else is just a distraction.

Hiring an expert though doesn’t have to be scary. I have done over 150 out sourcing projects and I have found some incredible and some awful freelancers. For this post I am willing to share the name of one of my better HTML, SEO, Web design guys. He even agreed to run the paypal transactions right through my company so that you guys don’t have to be scared sending your money over seas, etc.

If you need any help with improving your site speed, optimizing your on page seo, etc. just shoot him an email!

You can get ahold of my guy at:

siteimprovements@gmail.com

LAST NOTE:

I thought it was important to say not to get too carried up in this!  Obviously page load speed is important.  It has been proven to increase conversions and might start becoming a factor in rankings.  However, I wouldn’t spend all your time worrying about this as content is still king!  If your page loads extremly fast already don’t spend coutnless hours trying to squeeze more out of it.  My homepage and blog on this particular site do need some work and so in the next 30 days I have already set aside time to improve that, but note I am not going to drop all other SEO efforts for the month to worry about that.
Take it in stride!  :)

Hope you enjoyed the article!  If you found this article useful please share it on twitter, stumbleupon, dig, etc!
It really helps especially on these longer articles I put together for free for you guys!

Thanks again,

Michael Roberts

P.S. For an extremly detailed list of all on page factors you should take into consideration you should visit:

http://developer.yahoo.com/performance/rules.html

Oscars Over the Internet

With the feud between cable vision and ABC/Disney nearly 3.1 million people had trouble watching the Oscars. While these companies struggle to provide reliable source of TV the internet continues to make strides forward into providing TV/Movies streaming over the internet. Below is a list of a few of the places I found you could have watched the Oscars live on the internet!

1. Livestream
2. AP Livestream
3. Oscar.com
4. UStream TV
5. Webcastr
6. TV.com
7. TVGuide
8. YouTube /Oscars Channel
9. APLive Facebook page
10. Associated Press Channel
11. ATDHE

(Note I did not name all the places that carried the Oscars Live for free nor did I check all these resources to verify they actually wound up carrying the Oscars. Yes, I will admit it I don’t watch the Oscars myself :P)

Google Maps V.S. Bing Maps

Bing has seen a small decrese in it’s numbers of search shares while Google has recently seen a spike. However, Bing shows no signs of slowing down in their progress on developing a solid search engine. Just recently they have released the largest update to their maps to date. While using Bing I noticed I had an easier time locating my house than when I used Google Maps however their over all quality in my area was a bit worse. Here are the comparisons for my house.

Google Map of my house:

Bing Map of my house: (Note the circle fence in the bottom left corner is nearly missing and in the top right hand corner the truck and blue tarp are just a blur.)

Google Expands

Just recently Google has acquired two new online business. Picnik and Doc Verse. Both are awesome little services and you can check them out at the links below.

Picnik – This service allows you to edit your photos right form your web browser.

DocVerse – Real time sharing and group editing of Word, Excel and Power Point files.

YouTube News

YouTube has changed the default size for embedded videos. By default they’re getting bigger at either 480×385 for a 4:3 video, or 640×385 for a 16:9 video. YouTube says it went with these sizes, because they will give most viewers the best viewing experience because they better match current video encoding sizes.

Also as promised here are the secret photos of YouTube’s new UI they are testing in random people’s accounts. Also, notice how there aren’t multiple stars anymore…It’s sheerly Like or Don’t Like.

WIERD! Look at that share picture of YouTube’s new UI. I am really surprised they have not already included Google Buzz into the new UI’s share feature!?

Question of the Day

Do you think it’s a good idea or a dumb idea to have a computer at a treadmill?
Tell me your thoughts!

-More pictures of treadmill desks at Stumble Upon

-And in case you wanted to build your own here is a site to help you! :P http://buildatreadmilldesk.com/

Lastly, I will be shooting a screenflow video shortly with tips on how you can increase your page load speed!

Thanks for watching and reading!

Michael R Roberts

Well that video was interesting! Yeah I am aware that I am a total dork! Was also very difficult putting on and off the coat and glasses. *pant pant*

So Google Buzz isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There has been some big privacy concerns with the Buzz. When you sign up for Buzz it automatically has you start following the people you Gchat and Email alot. This is really quite a nightmare for alot of people. I absoltuely hate it how Freelancers I email all the time now have me on Google Buzz. They are constantly trying to use that as the platform to communicate. Yuck! :P

In fact people have been so upset about this privacy violation that there is even a class action law suit filed against Google. (Yay another useless lawsuit filed against the successful to raise insurance costs!) If you care to read more about that story you can visit here: Class Action Lawsuit Against Google

Don’t get me wrong I do agree that Google has made some terrible decisions with rolling out with Buzz…I also think it is very important to keep a close watch on what clausal companies like Google do who have already so much power….But really does this deserve a Class Action Lawsuit?

Weather it’s negative or positive Google Buzz has been getting an enormous volume of press all across the tech industry! This is almost as much fun to talk about as when twitter first came out! Weeee! However it really is a good service. I wouldn’t go as far as some people are and calling it a Facebook killer! Facebook will do a good job killing themselves if they go through with the decision to start charging people money to use their service in June or July or whatever date it has been moved to.

There definitely is some very good SEO potential though to be taken advantage of with Buzz, and as promised here are some more tips from me about Buzz that wasn’t used in the video.

1) Indexing and Backlinks. Google shot themselves in the foot once before by not allowing “No Follow Links” in the past. This time when they came out with Buzz though they made a smart decision and made them all “Do Follow Links”. This is fantastic news. Buzz doesn’t even shorten your URL’s. So anytime you come out with a new blog post, video, article, etc. Post a shameless plug about that new URL right on Buzz. This is a fantastic way to get the new content indexed and a free lil backlink! :)

2) Stealing is Wrong! but maybe not anymore!?!?! Ok so everyone knows duplicate content is a BIG NO NO. However, when the person who writes the rule book, Google, I guess they then have the right to change the rules when they see fit. With Google Buzz you can actually repost an entire blog post through Google Reader. You can sync your Google reader account right with Buzz which makes this lil trick possible. This basically allows you to share/steal content and get the green light from Mr. G.

3) As mentioned in the video you can use a third party site called Buzzzy in order to search latest trends on Google. This is a great way to add another little tool to your keyword research bag. Here is the link to this nice service: http://buzzzy.com/

4) Remember who your Buzz audience is. It’s important to keep in mind the context in which people will be looking at your posts on Buzz. Buzz is built right into people’s gmail accounts. What does this mean? It means 80% of the time when someone is checking in on Buzz it is between looking at emails. They are looking for a break from going through dozens of affiliate offers, people wanting their money, viagra ads and issues. I don’t know about you but going through my email often feels like a chore. After a few dozen emails I pop into my Buzz account and look for a brief escape. So keep your posts fairly short and try to dumb down the blatant sales pitches. You don’t want to have your Buzz account to be just another form of mass marketing like an email campaign. Keep it lighter and more chatty. Somewhere in between twitter and an email blast.

5) Post really controversial or comment worthy posts on Buzz. Buzz manages conversations in a more preferable way to me….it’s not like twitter where you have to spam a link over and over at different times of the day to try and reach your whole list. Soon as you post a twitter message with in mere minutes or seconds it is off the persons screen. Drowned out by dozens of other little tweets. With Buzz it will be the same way, but if someone comments or likes your post then it will re-surface to the top! How great is that? Content that is actually worthy will stay at the top!? So what this means to you is to engage your audience. People are already in a writing/comment mood because they just popped out of their email account….Now take advantage of that and ask them a question in your post or write something controversial, etc.

Ok that is it for Google Buzz.

Sorry the News video will be late this week. Will shoot it on Friday but it won’t come out probably till Monday. I am hoping to get on a normal filming schedule very soon! :)

And remember if you got some bit of useful information out of this rate the video 5 stars, subscribe to my YouTube channel or subscribe to the website! (If you don’t I will sue Google!)

Michael R Roberts

I have compiled a large list for you guys that you need to have uploaded onto your Word Press site! Just watch the video and follow the instructions and paste the following list into your WP options.

Please do remember to rate the video and subscribe to my channel! :)

Also don’t forget to set this up any time you create a new blog.

http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://api.feedster.com/ping
http://ping.blo.gs/
http://rpc.blogrolling.com/pinger/
http://rpc.icerocket.com:10080/
http://rpc.weblogs.com/RPC2
http://www.blogoole.com/ping/
http://www.blogoon.net/ping/
http://www.newsisfree.com/RPCCloud
http://www.popdex.com/addsite.php
http://www.snipsnap.org/RPC2
http://www.wasalive.com/ping/
http://www.blogsdominicanos.com/ping/
http://www.xianguo.com/xmlrpc/ping.php
http://www.feedsky.com/api/RPC2
http://api.moreover.com/RPC2
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://ping.syndic8.com/xmlrpc.php
http://xping.pubsub.com/ping